sirsean.posterous

Matt Casey over at the NBC Circling the Bases blog has a post up right now describing a couple of the ways in which the Red Sox have gotten lucky over the last several years. He opens his comparison with:

And while there's no question that the Red Sox have made many brilliant moves in scouting, the draft, free agency, marketing, etc, you also have to marvel at how extremely lucky they've been recently. Like, crazy lucky.

So in case you've had your head in the sand for the last five years and haven't heard ESPN and MLBN and NBC and MLB every other media outlet with any connection to baseball tell you that the Boston Red Sox are sooooo dreamy ... well, NBC's telling you again that they're just great. But they just might have, you know, maybe, been a little lucky ... please listen before you beat me! Or fire me!

How exactly did they get lucky?

1. Francona (apprently, foolishly) called for a bunt in game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, but the baserunner called it off an stole instead, leading to the Red Sox coming back and winning the game
2. They put Manny on irrevocable waivers in 2004, nobody took him, and he became the 2004 World Series MVP
3. They traded for A-Rod but the players' union stepped in and shot it down
4. When they got the drastically overpaid Mike Lowell in a trade from the Marlins, he miraculously resurrected his career and suddenly became good well after the age of 30
5. They lost a bidding war for Jose Contreras to the Yankees ... and Contreras turned out to be terrible
6. MLB decided to have a Red Sox employee investigate the steroid problem in baseball, instead of choosing an unbiased third party
7. They happened to be the only team in baseball with no connection to illegal steroids, at least until players leave Boston, at which point they suddenly start using steroids

Casey's article only mentioned the first five of these. But the last two are pretty valid too. Casey ended thusly:

Again, before Sox fans overreact, it should be repeated: Boston has made plenty of tremendous personnel decisions, and more franchises should model themselves after the Sox. Maybe they're finally the recipients of good karma after so many years of bad things happening. But enjoy the good luck while it lasts.

Jesus F'ing Christ. Are Red Sox fans really so fragile that writers have to be afraid to criticize the team in even the lightest possible fashion? I mean, nobody has said a bad thing about the Red Sox since 2004, and the first time someone comes out and says "you know, they've also caught some breaks," he has to tread so lightly that he virtually neuters his entire point.

Boston fans need to get over themselves, and realize that these good times won't roll forever. (Given that, you know, all the other good times enjoyed by anyone else in history have, at some point, stopped rolling.) And national media outlets have to get back to being unbiased sources of news and analysis, rather than a cadre of beat writers and homers openly rooting for one team over all others.

This is exactly why real baseball fans hate the Red Sox. They used to root for the Sox, but ESPN and Bostonians (both real and fraudulent) blew it with their ludicrous and over-the-top behavior since 2004. Fortunately, all this will end soon.